BENGALURU: Five constituencies in Karnataka -- ShimogaNSE 0.00 %, Bellary and Mandya for the Lok Sabha, and Ramanagara and Jamakhandi for the Legislative Assembly, will face bypolls on Saturday. The election authorities will count votes on Tuesday -- the day celebrated as Narakachaturdashi in South India.

The bypolls for the Lok Sabha constituencies were caused by the resignation of incumbents -- B.S.Yeddyurappa, B.Sriramulu and C.S.Puttaraju -- on their election as MLAs in the May 12 polls. Puttaraju not just won as JD(S) MLA, but has also become Minor Irrigation Minister. The other two represent BJP and sit in the Opposition. The Jamakhandi seat is going to polls as its MLA Siddu Nyamagouda died, and in Ramanagara, its MLA, chief minister H.D.Kumaraswamy resigned the seat. He had won from both Ramanagara and Channapattana, and preferred to retain the latter.

In Ramanagara, CM’s wife Anitha Kumaraswamy is contesting as JD(S) candidate, and is backed by the coalition partner Congress. It is expected that she will win with a stupendous margin as her main opponent L.Chandrashekar of the BJP quit the contest on Thursday, and announced his support to the JD(S). In the process, he also joined the Congress, the party he originally belonged to.

In Jamakhandi, the late MLA’s son Anand Nyamagouda is contesting on Congress ticket, but faces serious contest from BJP’s Shrikant Kulkarni. The Congress leaders, led by former CM Siddaramaiah have campaigned well for Nyamagouda, and the contest here is keenly watched as Kulkarni is a BJP veteran in local politics.